As modern society progresses into the digital revolution, multimedia has become more prevalent. Music is digitally encoded into compact discs (CDs) as well as digital files, such as with Motion Pictures Experts Group Layer 3 (MP3) format. Movie audio and video is encoded into digital video disks (DVDs). Television video and audio is now being recorded digitally in select areas. Analog television is being replaced by digitally encoded television, such as standard definition television (SDTV) and high definition television (HDTV).
Individual digital media types must be decoded electronically. Each digital media type has its own decoding scheme. To access available media, individual decoders are used. To allow a single system to offer access to many of the digital media available, the individual media decoders are integrated into the system. Many of the media types require intensive processing and high bandwidth, such as with Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) video decoding. A system is heavily burdened when processing requests from multiple media decoders. The time for a system to process a single request for a single media decoder can substantially increase when multiple decoders are being used. The delay to process a request can exceed the media decoder's limits. When a system does not adequately handle a request in the time allotted from a media decoder, the media is not properly decoded and the system has failed in providing service for that media.
Therefore, a system that overcomes these problems would be useful.